Image Gallery:
Dot Miller's Shirase expedition autograph book, 1911

'A dear friend by the strange shore'

In 1911, 21-year-old Dot Miller was living in Sydney's eastern suburbs and working as an actress. During the 6 months the Shirase expedition was staying at Parsley Bay, Dot befriended the expedition members and ship's crew and collected their autographs in her new autograph book. The book contains some delicate watercolour paintings by expedition members as well as greetings, some in Japanese, others in English. The last of these entries is dated 19 November, 1911, the day the expedition finally sailed for Antarctica.

Kept by her family for the past 100 years, the autograph book was loaned to the Australian Museum in 2011 for display in their Shirase exhibition.